Table of contents for June 2022 in BBC Science Focus Magazine

YEARS TO GO 25 A eye taken from an organ donor has been brought back to life by a team at the University of Utah. The researchers were able to restore the function of photoreceptors that had been dead for five hours. The finding could help to establish the causes of macular degeneration. 20 A miniaturised Deep Brain Stimulation system is showing promise in treating Parkinson’s disease in trials at Southmead Hospital, Bristol. It delivers electrical impulses to targets deep within the brain, overriding abnormal brain cell firing patterns caused by the disease. A growth factor found in the brain fluid of young mice can boost memory in older mice, a Stanford University study has shown. The researchers now plan to investigate the potential for using the same technique in…

Have you ever been driving along a motorway, listening to the radio, when your brain suddenly piped up with, “Hey, what if I just turn into the central reservation?” Or perhaps you picked up a knife to slice some bread and wondered, “What if I was to hurt someone with this?” These are examples of intrusive thoughts – just thoughts that pop into your head, either of their own accord or maybe because of the situation you’re in, such as driving a car or slicing bread. Ideally, we acknowledge these thoughts before simply setting them aside and moving on with our days. But for some people, at certain points in their lives, dismissing intrusive thoughts can become more difficult. Here, with some help from the experts, we explain what intrusive…

WARNING Psychedelics, such as magic mushrooms and LSD, are Class A drugs according to UK law. Anyone caught in possession of such substances can face up to seven years in prison, an unlimited fine, or both. Information and support for those affected by substance abuse can be found at bit.ly/drug_support WHAT ARE PSYCHEDELICS? Psychedelics are psychoactive substances (ones which alter the brain’s functioning) that are part of the ‘hallucinogens’ family. When ingested, they bring about an altered state of consciousness, involving temporary mental, visual and auditory changes, also known as a ‘trip’, or ‘tripping’. Humans have known about psychedelics for much of history. Many are naturally occurring, like psilocybin (the active compound found in magic mushrooms), or mescaline (found in the peyote cactus), and have been incorporated into tribal and…

ACROSS 1 Tricky question for model (5) 4 Reasonable to take king for an ascetic (5) 8 Fluid making her shake with hesitation (5) 9 Ministers’ furniture (7) 10 Half-moon seen during March (3) 11 Dream about having some means of destruction (5) 12 Quote me in reverse – it makes you sick (6) 14 Response after series showing chemical process (5,8) 17 Country to plug and advertise sandwiches (6) 19 Look for water, initially, in some medicine (5) 22 Cat’s check-up backfired (3) 23 Almost suggest returning gold at speed (7) 24 One laid out as an epic poem (5) 25 Exalted Egyptian figure wasted hours (5) 26 First couple of musicians finds DOWN 1 Language is equal to a weapon (8) 2 School’s first squad showed old power…

The future will be synthesised Henry Ajder, a deep fakes expert, examines how synthetic video – where a politician or celebrity can be faked with some clever computer graphics – could affect democracy. Available on BBC Sounds A Thorough Examination With Drs Chris And Xand: Addicted To Food The van Tulleken twins explore our relationship with food, and ultra-processed food in particular, to find out whether it’s the major driving force in the global obesity crisis. BBC Radio 4 31 May, 3:30pm Also available on BBC Sounds The Truth About Tourette’s Aidy Smith has Tourette’s Syndrome. In this programme he hopes to shine a light on the fact that 90 per cent of those with the condition don’t actually swear. He meets people who have overcome the struggles and stigma…

The Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) is often referred to as an ‘Earthsized telescope’ and as a ‘virtual telescope’. In astronomy, the bigger the telescope, the better. An amateur’s telescope with a 60mm lens will show you a decent view of the Moon’s surface or even Jupiter and Saturn, whereas the Hubble Space Telescope’s 2.4m mirror produces stunning images of nebulae and galaxies. Meanwhile, the primary mirror of the upcoming Earth-based Extremely Large Telescope is 39m across, allowing scientists to study the planets around distant stars. But by linking together 11 telescopes around the world, the EHT can effectively create one incredibly powerful virtual telescope with a mirror the size of Earth itself. “While Earth is rotating, all telescopes observe the same astronomical object for several hours, ” says Thomas P…

From a tropical rainforest to the edge of time itself, James Webb begins a voyage back to the birth of the Universe” – so went the launch narration when astronomy’s latest superpowered space explorer, the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), lifted off from French Guiana on Christmas Day. Like most launch announcements, it employed a bit of poetic licence to add to the drama. But now that JWST is settled into its orbit and sending back its first calibration images, we might well ask: what will this instrument tell us about the past, and how does that even work? Characterising a telescope as a time machine is both overstating and understating its abilities. The telescope itself doesn’t travel through time, but what it does is much more profound than just…

During the Triassic, some 225 million years ago, two types of animals went their separate ways. They were both born on the supercontinent of Pangaea, the single slab of land that stretched from the North Pole to the South. Their fates would be different, but forever intertwined. One group was destined for grandeur, and before long, their aeroplane-sized bodies thundered across the land. Dinosaurs. The other group was relegated to the shadows to bide their time. Mammals. Us, our distant ancestors. Fast-forward some 160 million years, through the Jurassic and to the end of the Cretaceous. Temperatures spiked and crashed, sea levels rose and fell, and the supercontinent became the many continents of today. Through all of this time, dinosaurs and mammals lived together, but followed their own paths. No…

NOCTILUCENT CLOUDS (NLCs) WHEN: LATE MAY-EARLY AUGUST Night darkness is in short supply during the middle of the year, as sunset is late in the day and sunrise early. In addition, the Sun’s position below the northern horizon in the middle of the night means much of the UK never sees proper darkness at all. Although this is a challenging time for stargazing, there is another phenomenon that can only be seen at this time of year. Noctilucent clouds (NLCs) are ice-sheet clouds forming at an altitude of around 80km (50 miles) in a thin region within the mesosphere. The mesosphere is a defined layer of Earth’s atmosphere, extending from an altitude of 50-120km (30-75 miles). During the northern hemisphere’s summer, the temperature of the mesosphere drops and any water…

I ALWAYS FIND THINGS TO DO LATE AT NIGHT AND IT’S STOPPING ME FROM SLEEPING. HELP! Life is busy and there are usually multiple things that we could be doing at any particular time. In this case, perhaps chipping away at an endless to-do list is leading to a late bedtime. An alternative possibility is that a hectic day can result in the desire to take time out for ourselves once the working day has finished. Perhaps we call friends or catch up on TV shows rather than sleep. This latter possibility has been referred to as ‘revenge bedtime procrastination’, which stems from a Chinese saying reflecting an absence of free time due to our hectic and stressful working lives. This is not a phrase used widely within scientific literature…

The new Jurassic World movie envisions a time where dinosaurs are no longer every theme park’s health and safety nightmare, but have instead started to reintegrate themselves as an ordinary part of our modern wildlife. Velociraptors stalk the woods like wolves. Men on horseback herd Parasaurolophus like cattle. A Tyrannosaurus rex disrupts a drive-in movie like… a bloody massive Tyrannosaurus rex. It’s a premise that raises interesting questions. What impact would reintroducing dinosaurs into the wild have on our ecosystem, for example? And how would dinosaurs fare in a world so profoundly different to the one they originally lived in? Prof Steve Brusatte, a palaeontologist at the University of Edinburgh and an advisor on Jurassic World Dominion, theorises that introducing, say, a T. rex into the British countryside would not…

New fan If you had asked me six months ago to read BBC Science Focus magazine, I would have laughed, politely, but with genuine hilarity at the idea! But for my father, in his late 70s, this magazine has offered him a lifeline of stimulating and challenging reading to keep his ‘little grey cells’ active. Having passed the magazines on to me for months, I finally picked them up and struggle to put them down! So now, as Dad and I meet for our weekly lunches, I am able to meet his enthusiasm for the latest discoveries with equal awe and wonder. As a visual learner, I really appreciate the accessibility of the information, recently described by reader Dr Ron Barnes in April’s issue as “trendy units”. Please don’t lose…

WHY ARE CORALS SO IMPORTANT? Coral reefs are often called the ‘rainforests of the sea’. They’re the habitat for a number of organisms, from the smallest invertebrates to enormous species that are fished commercially. All life – microbes, small animals, everything – depend on the coral reefs. They’re hugely important for coastal communities, for livelihoods, for the economy, for tourism. Corals also help to break waves so that they don’t erode islands and coastal cities. Whether directly or indirectly, we’re some way benefiting from corals. WHAT DOES THE STRUCTURE OF A REEF LOOK LIKE? If you strip away all of the living coral and the sponges and different things that make up the reef, you’re left with something that’s almost like a piece of rock. But as corals and other…

DR JULIA SHAW (@drjuliashaw) Julia is a psychological scientist at University College London, the author of multiple best-selling books, and the co-host of the hit podcast Bad People on BBC Sounds. The number of people who identify as queer in the UK Census has increased over the past few years. This trend is in particular driven by the rising number of LGBT+ identities among people aged 16 to 24 years. The most popular sexual identity within this emerging group is bisexual – the romantic and/or sexual attraction to more than one gender. Data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) shows an increase from 0.7 per cent in 2015 to 1.1 per cent in 2019. Rather than a sudden new surge of bisexual desires, increased acceptance, legal protection and visibility…

78% META QUEST 2 The popular Meta Quest 2 made up 78 per cent of VR headsets sold last year 11.2 million The number of VR headsets sold internationally in 2021, according to the International Data Corporation REVIEW Can a VR headset provide peace and tranquillity? Alex Hughes tries to relax with a screen inches from his face… Mindfulness is big business these days, particularly when it comes to the world of tech. The Calm app exceeded a $1bn valuation in the middle of the pandemic, and its mortal enemy, Headspace, boasts over 30 million users across 190 countries. While meditation apps are popular, they aren’t the only form of tech working their way into your mindfulness routine. HTC is looking to inject new life into virtual reality headsets by…

THE DEEPEST (AND CLEANEST) SNOLAB, ONTARIO, CANADA Even a Bond villain might consider SNOLAB too remote for an underground lair. Earth’s deepest and cleanest lab is two kilometres underground, part of a nickel and copper mine in Ontario, Canada. The deep layer of rock between the 5,000m2 lab and the Earth’s surface shields it from the cosmic radiation that would otherwise interfere with its sensitive experiments. The lab searches for solar neutrinos (extremely small subatomic particles produced by the Sun) and dark matter, the estimated 27 per cent of matter in the Universe which remains a mystery to us. But situating a sparkling clean lab in a mine comes with its downsides. As well as a 1.5km walk from the lift to the lab, researchers and support staff must undergo…

Morganucodon (Triassic, around 205 million years ago) One of the very first mammals, living alongside some of the first dinosaurs. The size of a mouse, it had all of the classic features of mammals: hair, large brains (compared to reptiles), specialised teeth (incisors, canines, premolars, molars), and hyper-sensitive ears. Repenomamus (Cretaceous, around 125 million years ago) About the size of a badger, it was one of the largest mammals that lived with dinosaurs. One fossil was found with baby dinosaur bones in its stomach, a last meal that inverts the classic story: some dinosaurs would have actually feared mammals. Cimolestes (Cretaceous, around 66 million years ago) A scurrier that looked like a shrew, this anonymous mammal was either a very primitive placental or a close relative of the group. It…